Osun Threatens to Shut banks, Telecoms Firms Over N30bn Tax Default

The Chairman of Osun State Board of Internal Revenue, Mr. Bicci Alli, has said the agency will begin to clamp down on companies, ventures and organisations that have refused to remit their taxes and other levies to the board.

Alli, who said this in an interview with our correspondent in Osogbo, on Wednesday, said the amount of money being owed the state was over N30bn.

According to him the board wants to resort to legal option to compel the defaulters to pay because it has been observed that some of them may never pay if drastic approach is not employed.

The new chairman said the agency had been sensitising the people of the state to the need to pay taxes and other rates to the state because the government needed to provide infrastructure and execute its projects to make life better for the people.

He expressed sadness that some business organisations were always ready to circumvent the law, adding that the board would no longer allow this to continue.

Alli stated, “We are being owed over N30bn now but we have sent letters to the companies and organisations owing us that we will start closing them down beginning from next week. We have given them ultimatum.

“We are working with the judiciary to get the warrant to shut them; and after closing them down, we won’t open them until they pay up. We will not do anything illegal but we will not allow those who have refused to pay to continue doing business.

“They have taken Osun State for a fool for long and they think we are not serious, but we will show them that we are serious. Some of what we are being owed are deductions from their staff, which they have not remitted.

“Those owing us cut across every sector – banks, telecommunication companies, hospitals, schools and so on. They cannot try this in other states but they are trying it here.”

Alli explained that the state needed to generate more funds and stop its reliance on the allocation accruing to it from the federation account because of the dwindling nature of the allocation.

“There is no bank in Nigeria that is not represented here in Osun State because there are business opportunities,”  he said.

PUNCH